


Fatherly Advice

by Stormlyht



Series: This Town That Loves Me [43]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Stilinski Family Feels, This town loves Derek, mentions of rape threat, stiles not so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 21:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8506630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormlyht/pseuds/Stormlyht
Summary: Stiles has been trying to make his decision about what to do about Derek.  Advice comes from an unexpected source, and Stiles learns more about his parents than ever before.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So there was only supposed to be two parts left. Only then this happened. I would say I'm sorry, but I'm mostly feeling pretty good about how this turned out so I'm not going to. Unedited, just finished, I hope there's some good feels here or that tag is going to be silly. Let me know. <3

Amazingly enough, it took a week for them to be alone together again. Derek had pack stuff to do, and Stiles had his father to calm down. Plus there was all this pain related to werewolf injuries and Stiles didn’t want to have sex when he was still so sore. Added onto all of that was Scott, freaking out over being an Alpha-thing, and having a pack, and the fear he had over asking Allison if she wanted to join his pack, she did, and Stiles was actually busy in non relationship ways.

It sucked. There was some part of Stiles’ mind that thought they’d make it through the battle and everything would fall into place afterwards. Like domino’s. One action leading to the obvious next action ending in a delightful culmination of bliss. Life should be so easy. Only, of course, it wasn’t.

In the meantime, he had to think about everything Derek had said, the way he’d said it, brain analyzing over each part carefully. Did Derek mean *this* when he said *that*, or did he mean something else entirely? Did he want what this meant, what this relationship could be? *Was* he too young to really know what he wanted?

That was the part that stuck the most in his mind, leaving him staring up at his ceiling at three am unable to sleep. His homework was a mess, none of his projects were done, and he’d jerked off so much he wasn’t even sure he was really getting pleasure from it anymore. Possibly because he kept *thinking*. Usually Stiles liked to think, thinking was *good*, thinking was important. Right now though, he felt like it must be a terrible detriment, because he didn’t know what he was doing, or what was the best thing *to* do.

It was actually his father that broke him out of it. Surprisingly.

“Stiles,” the voice said casually from his doorway, six days after the Alpha Battle. Stiles looked up and stared at his father, dressed in normal clothes, a phone in his hand.

“Yeah Dad?” he asked, curious, sitting up so he wasn’t still staring at the ceiling. It wasn’t going anywhere.

“I’m ordering pizza. With vegetables. And when it comes in, we’re going to sit and discuss whatever it is that has you so distracted. There will be no way for you to get out of this conversation, so I’m going to spend the time preparing my mind for whatever it is you might be trying to figure out. I suggest you prepare yourself to tell me everything. Do you understand?” Stiles wanted to say yes, and no, and that they didn’t have to have this conversation, but when he looked at his Dad, really looked at him, he could see the worry lines and the uncertainty there. Sure, his Dad had gotten him alive, out of the Alpha battle, away from the supernatural stuff, but he didn’t know everything and Stiles…. Stiles kinda needed some advice. Fatherly advice. Shit. Relationship advice.

“Yeah Dad,” he said, voice choking, body tense but he thought it wasn’t in the bad way where he was going to lose his shit. More, tense in that way where he knew something was coming and he knew he needed to do the thing, but he was nervous about it anyway. “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.” He’d promised. He’d promised that he’d tell his father. Even though he had also promised he’d wait to have sex. He had promised that, hadn’t he? His brows furrowed as he tried to remember that, because it felt like an important thing but so much had happened over the last few weeks that he didn’t know what he’d said to whom and… Stiles took in a deep breath and watched his father leave.

They were silent during dinner. Silent except for the small tangles of inane conversation that stuttered and started like a car with ignition troubles. It would have been comical if it wasn’t for the feeling of dread that kept going through Stiles. He was almost finished eating when he finally looked right at his father to speak.

“I think I want to get werewolf married to Derek.” He expected his father to bluster, to become outraged, to yell or possibly throw things.

Instead, his father put down his piece of pizza, looked him right in the eyes, and said, “Do you?”

That threw Stiles completely. Nothing he was prepared for had just happened and he wasn’t sure how to deal with that. Taking in a deep breath, he nodded. “Sorry. I, um, there’s this thing. It’s… it’s *Mates* for werewolves. It’s a lifelong commitment, and it’s not something you can just get out of. Derek says it’s rare, and that he hasn’t heard of it happening with humans and werewolves. Only, only Deucalion said it was *different* with humans, not impossible. He said that…” Stiles felt the panic at the edges of his vision, wishing to creep in and he didn’t want that. Taking in a deep breath, he closed his eyes and let the breath out slowly. “He said that humans have more possibilities than werewolves did. He said there were three that could be mine, and he was one of them. He was going to take me if Derek lost.” He opened his eyes again, and looked at his father, feeling young in a way he hadn’t for a very long time.

“Stiles,” his father breathed out, standing up and going over to wrap strong arms around him. “You idiot.”

“Yes,” Stiles said, nodding his head and clinging to his father. “Okay, that’s fair.” This was where he was protected, cared for, loved. His father had his back, knew him in ways no one else did, and didn’t care about all of that as long as Stiles was safe. It was good.

“You didn’t tell me because you weren’t sure how I was going to react. You’ve been keeping everything from me, and now you’ve got this back log of shit, and goddamn it Stiles, if I have to get the story one piece at a time I will, but I wish you’d have told me some of this before now.” One broad hand began running over Stiles head and he took a deep breath, smelling gun oil, coffee, pizza and that faint scent of Old Spice his mother had always loved.

“I’m sorry Dad. I’m sorry.” There was no reason for him to want to cry, for the tears to be pricking at his eyes, but he felt like wailing. Some part of him had been expecting to feel the horror of killing Deucalion in the days that passed, but instead he had been focused on Derek, on this relationship and what he wanted, and maybe it was because he had something else to focus on that he hadn’t dealt with those other emotions.

“Oh Stiles,” his dad murmured in that low, soothing voice he had. “You don’t have to be sorry. It’s okay. It’s over, I’ve got you.”

Later, Stiles would tell himself that he sobbed like a child because all the emotions came out at once, and maybe that was true. As he was doing it though, as he babbled the whole story out about mates, and Derek being so careful, and Deucalion’s threats of rape, and all the fear he’d been living with running with wolves on top of not knowing if he would still be him by the end of this whole event, he just felt a kind of catharsis.

They were on the couch by the end, Stiles curled up against his father. His father’s arm was wrapped around him, a hand on his head, and a box of tissues was nearby. Silence reigned for a little while, broken by his father.

“When I met your mother, I fell in love with her instantly,” he said gently. “She was beautiful, and I knew right away I wanted to marry her.” Stiles hung onto each word, even though so far, he already knew the story. It took so much for his father to talk about his mother, and he didn’t want to spoil it at all. “She was four years older than I was and teaching a special class at the school about vegetable gardens.” He chuckled, and Stiles frowned.

“Wait, what?” he asked, looking up at his father finally. “You two always said you met in college.”

“That’s right,” he said with a nod. “Because we didn’t want to give you the idea that we weren’t…” he stopped and took in a breath. “Because it was the edge of illegal Stiles. What we did. I asked her out, she said no, and for months I was like a love sick puppy. She almost asked for a restraining order.” He raised his eyebrows at Stiles and Stiles had to admit it was difficult to imagine that.

“But…” he tried to rearrange everything he knew about his parents to fit this new mold. It wasn’t easy.

“She liked me too, and that’s when I finally backed off. We were standing on her front porch, her parents inside the house, and I told her I loved her, that she was amazing and I wanted to marry her. She laughed and told me I didn’t know her well enough for that. I knew though Stiles. I *knew* that she was the one, and that I had to prove it to her somehow. When I told her that, she pursed her lips and said, “If you’re serious, then you’ll agree to back off and give me some space.” I wanted to tell her that she just had to trust me, but she’d given me my choice. So I took it.” He took in a breath and Stiles curled in closer. There was a happy ending here, or Stiles wouldn’t be alive, so he just had to wait for it.

“Two months later I got a knock on my door. She was standing there, lovely as could be, and gave me this radiant smile. “You’ve waited for two months, now how do you feel about me?” she asked and it took all my willpower not to rush out and kiss her. I told her I wanted to take her out, she said yes, and we were married by the end of the year. I was seventeen.”

“Your parent’s consented?” Stiles asked with a frown. “They liked Mom that much?”

“They loved her. She brought sunshine and laughter into the house, her parents and mine loved each other, and it just felt inevitable to me. My parents thought that if her parents were okay with us, that we could have a small wedding and it would be fine. My mother told me that if I didn’t finish school she was going to take me over her lap, age be damned, and give me twenty hard whacks every day until I went back to school.”

“It’s so weird Dad,” Stiles complained, shaking his head. “I mean, you…”

“I want you to realize that you have choices, and that you are young, and no one has the right to push you. I didn’t have the right to push Claudia, Derek doesn’t have the right to push you. If you want him to back off-“ but Stiles wasn’t about to let his father finish that sentence.

“No, Dad, no, it isn’t him. Derek told me to take as much time as I needed. He said…” Stiles took in a breath and tried not to think about Derek, waiting for him to make his decision. “He said he’d wait. He said he’d wait as long as I needed, that he wouldn’t push me, that it had to be my decision.” He met his father’s eyes. “He *said*.”

“Good,” his father nodded in approval. “I thought he was a smart boy.”

“The thing is, I don’t think I want to wait. I know… I know I shouldn’t do anything illegal and stuff because you’re Sheriff and…” Stiles took in a breath and looked down, unable to look into his father’s eyes. “I just really like him.” He frowned. “No, Dad, I love him. I didn’t know at first, that I wanted a forever with him, but if I’ve learned anything these past few weeks, it’s that he… he helps keep me grounded.”

“Stiles?” his father said softly. “Look at me.” Reluctantly, he looked up and met his father’s gaze. “When you think about the future, when you really think about life in ten years, what do you see?”

Blinking, and wanting to laugh at the absurdity of the question, Stiles smirked and was about to say something ridiculous about a white picket fence and fat werewolf babies, but then he caught the frown on his father’s face. It wasn’t time to be funny, this was a serious question. Taking in a deep breath, he nodded and closed his eyes.

What did he think? Was it a house, yes, a big one, with a wide porch, out on the preserve. Derek was there, with the other beta’s, Erica and Boyd were married, and already had two kids. Isaac was in the yard, Allison and Scott and the twins there as well. The sun was shining, and a grill was working on the porch off to the side, his father yelling about how the steaks were going to be cooked this time. Stiles was sitting on the stairs, Derek standing over him, a hand on his shoulder. There was light, and laughter, and warmth.

His lips curved up in real life and he opened his eyes to say something about it to his father, but his father was just nodding. “That’s your answer son,” he said gruffly.

“I didn’t even know the question,” Stiles protested and his father laughed.

“Look, you’re young, I know, you know, but there are certain decisions you have to make. This is one of the big ones, but if this whole “mates” thing is real, then you’re not going to want to leave him. If it isn’t, then you’ll be able to walk away if it doesn’t work out. The question was, do you risk it being forever? You want forever, and I’ve known for a long time now that if you want something, there is nothing in Heaven or Hell that will stop you from getting it.” His father squeezed his arm. “So go. Get it.”

Stiles blinked and nodded at his father. “Okay. Thanks Dad.” He gave his father a hug, which his father returned. “Thanks.”

There was a moment of silence, then his father stood up, pulling Stiles with him. “I mean, go get it now.” He pushed Stiles away and looked pointedly at the door.

“Wait,” Stiles’ head was swimming. He frowned. “I’m grounded.”

“And you will still be when you come back tomorrow morning. I expect you both here for breakfast at nine. Get out of my house.” His father pointed at the door, and Stiles blinked a few times before he nodded and flailed into action. Keys, a change of clothes, his phone, all in pockets or a bag, and he almost left without his pillow and his toothbrush, but he managed those two things very fast.

Pausing at the door, he looked back at his father, who was finishing his pizza, now cold, and was raising his eyebrows at Stiles.

“I love you, you know that right?” Stiles asked, and his father nodded. “Good. Good.” He gave his father a smile and then was out the door. No one gave better advice than his dad.


End file.
